An attempt by the Minister of Information and Communications, Prof. Dora Akunyili, to ask the Executive Council of the Federation (EXCOF) to demand a vacation letter from President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua was shouted down yesterday, THISDAY has learnt.
The President travelled to Saudi Arabia for medical treatment in November last year without transferring authority to the Vice-President, a situation that has led to power vacuum and is threatening governance in the country.

Many ministers told THISDAY yesterday that Akunyili passed a memo round EXCOF members in which she asked the council to discuss Yar’Adua’s prolonged absence and seek the possibility of allowing Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan to step in as Acting President until the President returns from Saudi Arabia.
“The Yar’Adua loyalists shouted her down and told her the memo should have been circulated before yesterday’s meeting if she wanted it discussed,” one source told THISDAY. “Some ministers, who could not speak openly, murmured that the Farouk AbdulMutallab memo was discussed and acted upon the same day it was presented to council, so why should Yar’Adua’s case be different?”

The reaction of the pro-Yar’Adua ministers might have further created division in the cabinet which has been widely criticised for declaring the President fit to rule even when it is not in a position to do so.
THISDAY was unable to get a copy of Akunyili’s memo yesterday because she was ordered to withdraw all copies from the ministers.
“She was told that if the memo leaked to the press, she would be held responsible for it,” another source – a minister from the North – told THISDAY.

The Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Alhaji Ahmed Yayale, was said to have personally gone round to withdraw the memo, which had been served on the 42 ministers present.
In the memo, she was said to have restated her loyalty to the President but raised concerns about how his absence had stalled government business and led to some unconstitutional actions.

“She said we should remember that permanent secretaries have been waiting to be sworn in for two months, meaning some ministries don’t even have permanent secretaries now. She also reminded council that the VP has no constitutional power to take any bill to the National Assembly. She said even though the VP deployed troops to quell Jos riots, many Nigerians said it was unconstitutional,” the source said.

Akunyili was also said to have reminded the council that the Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND) had opted out of the amnesty programme because of the President’s absence from the country.
The renewed threat is a danger to the country’s economy, the memo reportedly emphasised.
Another minister told THISDAY that Akunyili’s memo asked the council to act urgently as prominent and well-meaning Nigerians, former heads of state and senators had done by asking the President to send in a vacation letter to allow the Vice-President to act.

“I think the memo was sensible but some of our colleagues were not all well disposed to it. She made it clear that she was not saying council should ask the President to resign, but that it would be better to transfer authority to the VP. Even if the President returns today, he will still need time to rest and recover,” he said.
The memo, according to sources, also highlighted the fact that though the President was said to have hurriedly left the country without being able to write a letter to the National Assembly, the fact that the Supplementary Budget is said to have been signed by him means he could still have sent the much-desired letter to the federal lawmakers.

Noting that “our hard-earned democracy” was in serious danger of being truncated, Akunyili was said to have reminded the cabinet about the rule of law stance of the Yar’Adua government.
Said a minister: “Akunyili noted that before Yar’Adua left Nigeria, he had a moral and constitutional obligation to officially inform the Senate and hand over the mantle of leadership to the Vice-President, pending his return and recovery. She said posterity would judge us harshly if we do not intervene to resolve the crisis.”

The most direct aspect of the memo, according to an insider, is where she said if the President does not transmit a letter, “we can evoke whichever aspect of the constitution that should make the Vice-President an Acting President”.
“She said we could also take advantage of the 14 days ultimatum given by the Federal High Court to make a declaration of the President’s fitness. The ultimatum will expire on Friday,” the source revealed, adding that Akunyili specifically said she was not demanding that Yar’Adua should resign for being sick because “he did not choose to be sick”.

Akunyili was quoted as saying: “If we fail to act now, history will not forgive us.”
THISDAY learnt that although nobody spoke in support of Akunyili’s memo, most of the ministers were very happy with the content.
Some of them went to commend her at the end of the meeting for displaying rare courage and hailed her “for speaking our minds”.

http://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=165768

I have said this before that the Minister for Information, Mrs. Dora Akunyili is not a diplomat and that the job of information dissemination is pure diplomatical in nature.
I think the best thing to do was to submit her memo through appropriate channel and if it fails to get to the meeting she can challenge the managers of that department. As a follow-up, she can make copies and distribute to ministers the way she did.
Again if they fail to discuss the memo or in the event that she is harrassed, she can simply to the right thing - RESIGN.